


Better Things

by JediDryad



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Foreshadowing, Gen, New Year's Kiss, Up on the Roof, loss of friendship, not up for the party, yes we are going to ignore it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:54:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22018975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JediDryad/pseuds/JediDryad
Summary: Skywalker had been at the party and they’d exchanged terse greetings as she’d slowly worked her way through the crowd. Why in blazes had he followed her up here to the roof?
Relationships: Mara Jade/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 10
Kudos: 39





	Better Things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evilmouse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilmouse/gifts).



> I'm not always inspired to write and post so quickly, so here is a fic for evilmouse that she inspired by suggesting a Luke/Mara New Year's kiss might be fun to read about. It's a midly slapdash one-shot and all errors are mine.  
> Happy New Year!

“For someone who hates parties at Imperial Palace”, Mara thought, “I seem to get stuck at a lot of them.”

It was a New Year’s party. There had been a new push to mark the ancient Corellian tradition across the galaxy this cycle as a bid to support the system in the wake of the year’s insurrection. The idea had launched into hyperspace on Coruscant and the resulting pressure had led even the government headquarters to throw an impressive bash to mark the cyclic changeover.

She’d retreated to the roof after finally making her way around to every business associate, prospective client, and government contact she knew. Returning to work under Karrde meant she needed to re-establish herself with his connections and redefine her role in their minds.

It was exhausting and the only reason she’d been at the party.

Standing at her preferred rooftop lookout, she shifted her weight slowly from one foot to the other trying to release the pressure on her toes and arches. She’d worn the tiny heels to try to feel the part she’d had to play. Now that she was done, all she wanted to do was take them off and throw them at a passing speeder.

Probably a bad idea.

“Mara?”

Skywalker.

He’d been at the party and they’d exchanged terse greetings as she’d slowly worked her way through the crowd. Why in blazes had he followed her up here? 

“I wanted to get some air.” he said in response to her unasked question.

“Karrde asked me to bring you your cloak,” he continued. 

“He thought you might be chilly up here.”

“Oh he did, did he?” she answered skeptically, taking the warm garment from him and wrapping it around her bare shoulders. She should have grabbed it herself on the way out the door, but she’d had no interest in conversing with the cloakroom beings.

It was nice that Karrde had thought of her, but she was suspicious of his choice of delivery being. Karrde had seemed determined to throw her and Luke together as much as possible lately. 

It was frustrating. Yes, they’d been friends. They weren’t anymore. Arranging for them to meet regularly wasn’t going to fix that. Nothing she could think of was likely to fix it. She just had to get over wishing he were someone he wasn’t.

“Did you see everyone you needed to?” He asked, leaning on the railing next to her and looking out over the city.

“Yes”, she replied willing him not to use this opportunity to dredge up past memories of this railing and the day he’d given her the lightsaber she was carrying in her handbag.

“Good.” was his only response.

There was silence as colourful fireworks launched from another gathering on a building a few kilometers away.

“They’re early,” she noted. 

“Cyclic changeover doesn’t start for another few minutes.”

“Maybe they want to get in their display early so it won’t get lost in the masses at midnight.”

“Or maybe someone drank too much Corellian and kriffed up the timing switches.”

He smirked and nodded wistfully. 

“Probably more likely.”

“Thanks for the cloak. You should get back to the party before the chimes. Celebrate the end of the cycle.” 

She attempted an understanding smile. Her painful toes and Karrde’s scheming weren’t Skywalker’s fault.

“You don’t want to miss the big moment.”

He snorted. “Sure I do.”

She raised her eyebrows at that and pulled her cloak a bit closer as a chill breeze blew across the two of them.

“It’s not really been a cycle to celebrate.” he muttered, half to himself.

“Ah,” Mara thought she understood. “Prime Minister Captison.”

He nodded and shrugged. 

“Gaerial, Corellia, trouble is clearly brewing between the Ishori and Diamala, again, and who knows what else is just waiting to flare up?”

He slumped forward, head dropping below his shoulders for a moment before he peered out into the night again.

“Sometimes I wonder if anything is really holding this republic together other than hope and spacer tape.”

“I expect Leia’s willpower is a factor” she prompted.

“And Leia’s willpower.”

“Don’t forget about that.” 

Mara had met Leia for lunch a week before and had been struck by how strong the other woman’s drive and clarity had remained over the years. It made her wonder if she’d ever felt that clear about her purpose in her post-Empire life.

Luke grinned and shook his head. He straightened his shoulders and stood up facing her.

“You’re right. I won’t discount that.”

She smiled back, feeling that little ache she’d come to associate with times like this with Luke. Tiny moments when she got a glimpse of the man she’d met on Myrkr, when he had seemed like someone she could reach out and touch rather than the unknowable Master.

His eyes sharpened and time seemed to slow around them as he reached a hand to her cheek. Mara felt a breath burn in her lungs as she held it, trapped in place by the warmth of his fingers and the sudden intensity of his eyes.

“Thank you,” he murmured softly.

There was a pull between them now, like a tractor beam. It drew her inexorably toward him until their lips met: a soft brush, brief and breathless.

Then the chimes rang out and fireworks exploded from every rooftop for kilometers around them. The flurry of light and sound brought them back to themselves and they stepped away from one another watching the constant stream of flashes and echoing booms around them.

The sky was aflame and it was hard to tell if it was a joyous event or the beginning of another war.

“Hmm,” Luke began, the first to find words. 

“This looks a bit more like the Liberation of Coruscant than I think they were going for.”

Mara nodded in agreement.

He continued,

“But, I suppose these explosions are a symbol of the destruction of the old and the beginning of the new, and it is better that we do it symbolically than destroy life again.”

She shot him a sidelong glance at his attempt to make this overdose of conspicuous revelry into a grand symbol of hope.

“Indeed, Master Skywalker?”

Luke stiffened, and Mara realized he’d shifted again. His shields were back up, and her ribbing would not be welcome.

“Yes.” He said quietly, subdued.

He nodded to himself and turned to go back to the stairs without saying anything else. The solitary jedi once more.

The ache turned to ash.

“Luke”, she called out after a moment, tasting it in her mouth.

He stopped and turned around.

“May the new cycle bring you new life that is greater than the old.”

He smiled sadly.

“You too, Mara.”


End file.
